SIG SAUER Ammunition Review: The New Kid in Town

I’ve had to fight for my life…too many times. Once it was in a grocery store parking lot where a fugitive tried to stab me with a knife. Another time it was in a tight hallway when I was trying to arrest a man for kidnapping and beating his ex-girlfriend. A third time was in a dusty lot in the middle of a trailer park where I was attempting to control a suspect who had threatened his mother with a gun.

Unfortunately, I could go on with many more incidents. Fortunately, I won every time.

Each time, the outcome was dependent on my training, decisions and equipment. That’s one of the reasons why I tend to have a fairly harsh view on training and gear that is marketed for self-defense or law enforcement use.

Without sounding too coarse, I simply won’t recommend a self-defense product or training class to you that I think is a waste of time or money.

SIG SAUER introduced a comprehensive line of ammunition several years ago. I suspiciously eye any new ammo that comes onto the market, and I have decided to only carry products that have a positive track record on the street.

When the new SIG Elite Performance V-Crown self-defense ammo made it to the store shelves, I did not recommend the ammo to anyone. Although it looked good on paper, it simply had no track record.

So, what’s my opinion now? Well, SIG was good enough to ship me some of their 9mm loads: a pair of hollow points and one of the ball load. I took them to the range, and this review details my findings including why I am cautiously optimistic about the rounds.

Quick Takeaways

good accuracy – even from short barrel pistols

completely reliable with a variety of handguns

modest to average recoil

hollow point loads largely unproven

V-Crown

In 9mm, SIG offers three different 9mm hollow point rounds. All are standard pressure rounds and use the Sierra Bullets V-Crown projectile. Since late 2015, Sierra sells a limited number of these bullets for handloaders, but does not offer the breadth of caliber and weight combinations that SIG loads in their ammo.

Sierra is widely regarded as being a top notch bullet manufacturer. Some of the company’s offerings, such as the .308 168 grain Match King, have set the standard for performance in various categories. Sierra states the design delivers “…optimal weight retention and expansion at all effective distances…”

I had the chance to test both the 124 grain and 147 grain loads through a variety of pistols. All of the rounds functioned perfectly and showed good accuracy.

I recorded velocities as shown in the tables below. The data should give you a general idea of what you can expect from these rounds in your own pistols.

Accuracy was very good with this load. Some of the best groups with this ammo came from the SIG 1911 Traditional Ultra Compact that I was also reviewing. This pairing turned in a best 5-shot group of 1.148″ at seven yards with an unsupported two-hand grip. At 15 yards, the group opened up to about double that: 2.210″.

I shot a total of 100 rounds, and reliability in all guns was 100%. Additionally, this load was fairly mild, both in terms of recoil and velocity measurements. Recoil felt like a practice load.

Prior to going to the range, I examined the data collected by Lucky Gunner on the SIG SAUER ammunition and read they had a five shot average of 1,072 fps from a 3.5″ barrel Smith & Wesson M&Pc. Based on that, I expected to see the load pass 1,100 fps from longer barreled guns like the Glock 19. Especially considering the factory specification states this load is running 1,165 fps at the muzzle.

Instead, I saw lower velocities across the board – even from longer barreled guns. According to Lucky Gunner, their chronograph was set up at 10′ and mine was at 9′. A negligible difference, but if anything, should have given a slight velocity increase to my own testing.

After returning from the range, I took a look at a video from TNOutdoors9 on YouTube where he tested the same SIG SAUER ammo. He reported a five shot velocity average of 1,138 fps from a Glock 19 Gen4. That is significantly faster than the 1,057 I recorded from the same model handgun.

An elevation and barometric pressure difference may be playing a role here. I’m shooting at sea level, and I know both Lucky Gunner and TNOutdoors9 are a little higher up in the atmosphere. Should anyone wish to compare their results to mine, the barometric pressure was 30.1 inHg when I was shooting.

Of the three loads I tested, the 147 grain V-Crown turned in the tightest groups. The best 7 yard group I shot – again 5-rounds, free standing – was only 0.7375″ across. At longer distances, the groups grew in size, but they remained smaller than the other loads tested.

As with the lighter load above, this was a mild shooting round. Reliability was perfect with 100 rounds fired.

The factory spec on this round is 985 fps. Out of the CZ P-07 and Glock 19 pistols, the velocity came in about 50 fps under that. All of the remaining guns have shorter barrels and lower velocities: 844 – 895 fps.

FMJ

SIG’s Elite Performance FMJ round is a good round for practice and informal target shooting. It is available with a 115 grain bullet only, so it is not a perfect analog for the V-Crown rounds I test above. However, at 3-15 yards, I did not observe any obvious change in point of impact as compared to them.

This load proved to be both reliable and accurate across eight different pistols. I encountered no malfunctions of any kind with 150 rounds of the 115 gr FMJ load.

For a practice load, this was a fairly accurate round as well. I managed a best of 1.4625″ at 7 yards: hand held, five shot group. At 15 yards, my best group was slightly larger at 2.219″.

Final Thoughts

The SIG SAUER Elite Performance ammunition has only been on the market a few years now. That makes the ammo a relative newcomer to the industry. As such, there is little data available on it from actual ‘real world’ shootings. That is where the rubber meets the road – so to speak.

In November of 2015, SIG announced that the Hawaii Department of Public Safety updated their service pistols to the SIG P320 and chose V-Crown ammunition to run them. The SIG SAUER representative I spoke with was not aware of any shootings involving the V-Crown in Hawaii or elsewhere. SIG declined to share any information on which public safety agencies were issuing its ammunition.

At the end of the day, this ammunition is quality built and may be a very good defensive round. My only serious reservation with the ammunition is the lack of real world examples of performance.

Until I see street performance results that suggest it is as good or better than what I carry now, I have to stick with the proven Federal HST and Speer Gold Dot rounds. As data comes in on the SIG rounds, I will happily include the rounds as a recommended load if the information is positive.

Keep in mind that the ammunition has several things going in its favor including flawless reliability in my test firearms and the bullet being designed by Sierra – one of the top bullet manufacturers. I am cautiously optimistic that these rounds will deliver if relied on.

Disclosure

You deserve to know about any potential influences or biases that affect my reviews. Hence, I offer complete transparency.

SIG SAUER provided most of the ammunition I used in this review. All of the ammo was shipped to me free of charge for the specific purpose of being used in gun reviews and in a review on the ammunition itself.

No request was made by SIG, nor did I offer any promise, to provide a positive review of the ammunition. SIG did not pay me any money or offer any other consideration for me to write a review on their product. The company did not ask for, nor did I promise, any links to their site(s).

SIG is not an advertiser, nor are we in any talks for them to be one. I have no financial interest in SIG SAUER or any other firearms manufacturer.

After I wrote the article, I elected to send a draft copy to SIG for them to review for inaccuracies. The company representatives did not advise of any technical errors nor suggest I unfairly portrayed their product. No changes were made to the draft that was submitted to the company.

My goal is to serve you, the reader, with the best possible information. I do not charge any reader any money for this information, nor do I pepper you with popup ads, auto-playing videos or any other obnoxious ad system.

I make the majority of the money on this site through the use of Amazon affiliate links. Those links do not slow the site down, nor do they cost you any money. If you find value in the information I provide you, and you use one of the links I provide, I earn a small commission (normally between 2.5% and 8%). I do not get to see what any individual purchases. Those small commissions literally feeds my family and keeps the electricity on in my home.

I hope that covers all of the bases. If not, please contact me or leave a comment below.

Reader Interactions

Comments

I need the Ballistic Coefficient for the 120 grain bullet that is loaded in the Sig Sauer 6.5 creedmoor elite performance HT solid copper. Can you please send this info to me it is needed for my scope MOA calculations, thanks.

Good read and it comes across very objectively. I would be very interested to read if you do a revisit of this in 3 or 6 months time and have been able to get any data on the V-Crown rounds. Thank you for taking the time to run these tests and publish your results. Would also be interested on your take on the G2 Research RIP ammo. Gimmick or sound idea….

I still have no real world data on these rounds. I believe there are several police departments that are now issuing the ammunition, but law enforcement shootings are relatively rare. SIG SAUER has declined to share any information (likely due to contractual agreements with the departments and legal concerns), so I am relying on readers and other sources to drop me a line when they hear about any uses of the ammo.

Regarding the G2 RIP ammunition – I have no hands on experience with it. While there are some interesting aspects to the design, it seems overly marketing driven to me. I know that rounds like the Gold Dot and HST work well in labs and on the street, so I feel more comfortable staying with them than with a round with a very limited track record. At some point, I would like to test the G2 ammo, but it is not high on the priority list at the moment.

I know this is a late reply but thanks, Richard, for this honest review. In a few days, I will be picking up my new gun (Springfield XD) and I have been looking at this ammo for my gun. What has caught my attention is the brand SIG which has come to represent quality.

After your review, I will believe I will shoot a few rounds at the range and hopefully settle on this ammo. We will see how it goes.